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Toddler Tuesday {Asher Wade Update at 3 Years, 3 Months}

Haven’t done a #toddlerAW update in awhile, so figured it was high time. I’m not sure I can call him a “toddler” anymore. When exactly does that end? He definitely seems more like a little boy now. This age has had some challenges, but it’s oh so fun. I don’t know what people are talking about when they say “Terrible Two’s” because I thought two was a walk in the park. Three has been more challenging in my opinion. It’s like Asher Wade has realized he has a voice, and opinions and emotions (oh lawd, the emotions…) and he likes to express all of them on a regular basis. For the most part it’s pretty manageable, and honestly, if you know Matt and me, we tend to find humor in things and we aren’t afraid to just sit back and laugh about it when little man is in the corner having a come apart. I find that just staying out of the way, giving him space and letting him have his moment is the quickest way to getting past a tantrum. Once he calms down, we talk it out, kiss and make-up and move along with our day. It happens. We are finding that time-out’s aren’t really effective anymore, and we prefer not to spank, so lately it’s been taking away toys and privileges, which works pretty well. He does test my patience regularly, but 90% of the time he’s a ball of fun and sweetness, so I can’t complain.

His language skills have just shot off. We have full on conversations now and he can easily express what he wants (or doesn’t want). After worrying so much about his speech development, it’s clear that all the advice I received about not worrying about it was spot on. It did eventually happen, like everyone said it would, and it does almost feel like it exploded out of nowhere. The only problem now is that we have to be SO CAREFUL about what we say. Not that we go around dropping F-bombs or anything, but I certainly drop a “crap” or a “boob” or a “for the love of…” on a regular basis. Lately he’s been saying everything is “cray cray” after he heard me call someone that. Hopefully he doesn’t tell on me. We get a lot of “Fine!” and “Whatever!” No doubt he picked that up from me as well. He can recite 4 bible verses and countless songs and little rhymes, including his ABC’s, and so far I’ve heard him count to 20, but he may be able to go further. Lately he’s really into gender and likes to point out who’s a girl and who’s a boy. He does this for people, animals, toys and other random inanimate objects. If I ask him how he knows whether something is a girl or a boy (other than actual people) he’ll say it’s a girl because it looks pretty or it’s a boy because it looks strong. My feminist streak tends to come out and I have to explain that girls are strong too. Pretty sure I went off on some tangent about how girls are not just defined by how pretty they are, after which he promptly looked at me and said, “But you’re so pretty mommy!” The other night we were driving home at sunset and he mentioned how it was so pretty outside. After I agreed he looked at me and said, “But you are even more pretty mommy.”

He’s potty trained! We pretty much backed off in May and then in June he suddenly became way more interested and motivated. We still didn’t push too much and let him take the lead. By early July he was having very few accidents and now it’s unusual for him to have one. He uses the big potty and he prefers to stand. This can be a little messy, but if that’s all I have to worry about I can deal. If you ever come to our house now you’ll know why we have anti-bacterial wipes next to every toilet. He does need help when he has to get up there and sit for #2, and he likes to have the door shut for privacy. As soon as we help him up he promptly tells us to leave and “please close the door.” About 15 seconds later he calls us back in there to look at it…”Mommy, I have something to show you.” I’m kind of over looking at his turds…#momlife (On that note, he’s really in to surprising us with things in general. He’s constantly coming up to us with something behind his back saying “I have something to show you.” It’s a crapshoot as to what it’s going to be, but so far, thankfully, he hasn’t taken his turds out of the toilet to “surprise” us). He’s still in a diaper at night, and it’s pretty heavy in the mornings, so I’m not sure how night-time training will go, but we’re fine with how things are going for now. I can certainly deal with one diaper per day.

You guys, this kid is so loving. I know I always say that, but it’s so true. I’ve never seen a 3 year old say “I love you” so much, and unprompted. He’s always telling us that, and giving us hugs and kisses. He loves to snuggle and be close. Sensitive as always and gets his feelings hurt easily. He can run into a brick wall (just like he did a few weeks ago) and not shed a tear, but if you hurt his feelings or get mad at him, cue the waterworks. Even with that sensitive streak, he’s incredibly adaptable, brave and fearless and will try just about anything. He loves the water and is really close to swimming unassisted. He tends to hold his breath underwater for too long when going from point A to point B, so we’re not entirely comfortable letting him swim without us being within arm’s reach, but I think he’ll have it down pat by the end of the summer. We went on a friend’s boat this past weekend and he would jump from the boat into the river without a second thought. He would have stayed in there all day. After watching me water-ski he was begging to try that. He literally wants to try everything. He still loves to ride his bike and scooter. It’s been so daggone hot, so we don’t spend a ton of time outdoors, unless it’s in the morning or evening, and that seems to suit him just fine. The few times we’ve gone to the park in the middle of the day he’s played for 10 minutes and then looked at me, soaked with sweat and with bright red cheeks, and said we “needed to go home and cool down now.” I feel ya buddy.

He starts legit school in a couple of weeks. The school we were planning to send him to for Kindergarten through 12th grade recently implemented a Pre-K program, so we decided to go ahead and enroll him. It’s crazy to think this is the school where he’ll ultimately graduate high school (hold me…) and it makes me realize just how fast he’s growing and how fast time is going. This is going to be a huge transition for him. Pretty sure it isn’t going to be like daycare where they basically play all day. He’ll have a desk and a schedule and extracurricular activities and assignments and we have a school supply list that we have to shop for, and it all just seems very big boy, which is making mama a big baby. I’m nervous how the transition will go, but I’m excited for him and I know it will be a really great environment. Plus, he will be challenged, which is always a good thing in my opinion. We actually attended a class picnic last night and were able to meet his teacher and classmates and their parents, which was really fun. I pray that these other kids become his close friends over the coming year and that we are able to build relationships with the parents.

He went to the pediatrician for his required school physical, so I have some recent stats, at least as of a few weeks ago. He’s 3 feet and 4 inches tall (89th percentile) and weighs 40 lbs (96th percentile). He’s wearing a size 9.5/10 in shoes and size 4t in clothes. We recently bought a new car seat to better accommodate his ever growing body. (SN: It’s a Diono Radian RXT and we love it and wish we had been using that all along). He’s moved up to fluoride toothpaste and does really well spitting it out (albeit in the toilet). He’s getting better about undressing himself, but still needs assistance getting dressed. He sleeps pretty well and stays in his bed all night for the most part. We start his bedtime routine around 8/8:15 (bath, jammies, brush teeth and hair, books, prayers), and he’s usually down around 9, but he would definitely stay up later if we let him. He gets up around 7 most mornings, although a lot of the time we have to go in and wake him up. His memory is crazy good and he’ll remember something we said or saw weeks ago. If we go somewhere even just one time, he’ll remember it and point it out next time we get close. He’s good at directions and can tell us how to get home (where to turn, etc.) and he knows the way to school, church, Target and Starbucks, lol. The kid loves Target (thanks to the Dollar Bin, where we let him pick out something) and Starbucks (thanks to cake pops) and asks to go often. He also loves to look for fire trucks when we are driving around in the car and will keep count of how many he sees.

He loves Paw Patrol, dinosaurs, Lightning McQueen from Cars, Spider Man and Super Man, sharks, planes and helicopters, all those little Matchbox cars, diggers, monster trucks, fire trucks, trains, Blaze and the Monster Machines, PJ Masks, The Lion Guard, any sort of ball or sport, books, and Finding Dory and Finding Nemo. He loves to get new clothes and especially new shoes and will tell everyone he comes into contact with about his new shoes, even if they are technically a month old. After Matt gets him dressed in the morning he can’t wait to come show me his outfit. He loves getting stuff in the mail and knows all about online shopping;) He loves his playroom and would be perfectly content in there all day. He’s definitely a homebody, but he always has fun once we get out. He loves animals and claims that dogs and giraffes are his favorite. He loves when we pass farms and he sees cows and horses. Favorite foods are bagels with cream cheese, mac n’ cheese (he asks for it every night), grilled cheese, biscuits, most fruit, peas, broccoli with cheese, string cheese, fruity popsicles, strawberry “milkshakes” (really just strawberries and vanilla yogurt in the blender), fries, turkey dogs and hot dogs, cheeseburgers, those kid sized Clif bars, yogurt, pretzels and tortilla chips, peanut butter sandwiches, quesadillas, and his hands down favorite treat is vanilla ice cream with M&M’s. He prefers to drink milk, water and iced tea, and still loves his morning “white moo-moo/cha moo-moo” (white milk with a little chocolate syrup mixed in). His favorite morning ritual is sitting on the counter while I make it so he can watch the white milk magically turn into chocolate milk:-)

He’s a mess of a little boy and we love hanging out with him. Every day is equal parts exhausting and rewarding. In other words, it’s parenthood.